Squeeze on law school

The former governor, a trustee and the chancellor abused their power when they pressured the University of Illinois law school to admit an unqualified student with strong financial ties to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the law school's former dean testified Wednesday before a state commission.

Heidi Hurd, now a U. of I. law professor, described being "enraged" when Chancellor Richard Herman not only ordered her to accept a student backed by the governor and his go-between, Trustee Lawrence Eppley, but then also tried to appease her by offering to secure five jobs for law school graduates.

"I was incensed because we had just been steamrolled by what I felt to be an abuse of an official office," Hurd said. "I took it to be the case that there had been a top-down gubernatorial fiat. I was incensed at Trustee Eppley and incensed at Herman not to muscle back."

In testimony later, Hurd's successor said he would have quit rather than cave to the pressure.

"I would rather tender my resignation ... than do something I thought was unethical or admit a student I thought was unqualified," law school Dean Bruce Smith told a blue-ribbon panel investigating admissions abuses at the state's most prestigious public university.

Newly released university documents and commission testimony show that Hurd and Herman reached an understanding in which she made her distaste known and he sought to minimize the damage with scholarship money and, ultimately, an offer for jobs.

Records show that Herman approved more than $300,000 in scholarships during a recent four-year period to attract higher-end applicants to stabilize the school's rankings.

In a full day of testimony Wednesday, commissioners seemed focused on whether any laws were broken or policies violated, and in particular the 2006 case involving the requested jobs.

Blagojevich's involvement in the case began two years earlier when he pushed for the applicant's sibling, who was admitted over staff objections. Both are relatives of prominent attorney Kerry Peck, who, along with his law firm, donated more than $120,000 to Blagojevich's campaign fund. The older sibling had letters of recommendation in her application file from Blagojevich, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Cook County State's Atty. Dick Devine -- all of whom received campaign donations from Peck in the preceding years.

The older sibling, who has since passed the bar, could not be reached for comment. She works as a Cook County prosecutor. Peck, who has repeatedly refused Tribune interview requests, provided a brief statement.

"I am very proud of my family and their substantial accomplishments!" wrote Peck, former president of the Chicago Bar Association and managing partner of Peck Bloom LLC.

But law school administrators aggressively pushed back against the 2006 applicant, fearing a repeat of the older sibling's low academic performance, records show.

Regardless, Herman e-mailed Hurd on April 29 with the news that the order to admit came "Straight from the G. My apologies." He then mentioned the possibility that Eppley would help five law graduates with jobs. The job placement rate of graduates is an important factor in law school rankings.

Hurd testified Wednesday that she spoke with Herman during the e-mail exchange and told him that the offer for jobs was preposterous. She said her replies about the types of jobs they should seek were meant to be sarcastic and that, ultimately, the jobs were never provided.

"I was furious, and I used sarcasm to try and shake someone who had not been shaken by a serious analysis" about the ill effects of admitting the underqualified student, Hurd said.

Hurd often tried to distance herself from Herman, her boss, describing "ferocious arm-wrestling" about decisions that she thought were "unwise." She said the chancellor, who faced pressure from trustees about admissions, made decisions that "whipsawed" her agenda to better the law school.

But he also made attempts to offset the negative hit to the school's rankings, including with the scholarships to help recruit higher-ranking students, Hurd testified.

In other testimony Wednesday, undergraduate admissions director Stacey Kostell testified that 160 candidates landed on the clout list this year. Of them, 70 gained entry on their merits, 33 were admitted after their rejections were overturned and the remainder were not accepted.

Commission Chairman Abner Mikva suggested that the practice sent a terrible message to top high schools.

"I'd be mad as hell and I'd tell my bright students, 'You don't want to go to the University of Illinois, that's a clout school,' " Mikva said.

Kostell replied: "That's the argument we make in our office. ...What message is that sending to the top students that we really want to enroll?"